Can BitmapFactory.decodeFile handle .ICO (Windows icons) files ?

Question

Hi all,

I am working on Android. Trying to display the "favicon" (aka "shortcut icon") or web pages.

So I already have the code to get the URL of this icon from any website, and download it onto my Android.

Now I am trying to make a Bitmap out of it, but always get null as a result.

The code:

String src = String.format("file:///data/data/com.intuitiveui.android/files/%s",prefName); // prefName is "facebook.ico", and I do see tht file in my DDMS file browser. It's // a valid icon file.

Bitmap res = BitmapFactory.decodeFile(src); // This returns null

TIA

Answer 1

Here is a list of the supported Android media formats. ICO is not among them. You might be able to find a Java-based ICO decoder, though.

Answer 2

The WebView component has a gevFavicon() method so it's definitely possible to decode ICO files in Android. You could have a look at the Android source to see how ICO files are parsed. I've had a quick look but can't find the relevant part.

Alternatively, you should be use the SDK to get favicons for you. However, I've had a quick try and can't get it to work.

For what it's worth here's my test code, noting again that this doesn't work:

    String url = "http://stackoverflow.com";
    WebView wv = new WebView(this);
    wv.setWebViewClient(new WebViewClient() {
        @Override
        public void onPageFinished(WebView view, String url) {
            Log.i("HelloAndroid","Loaded " + url);              
            Log.i("HelloAndroid","Icon " + (view.getFavicon() == null ? "not" : "") + " found");
        }

    });
    WebIconDatabase wid = WebIconDatabase.getInstance();
    wid.requestIconForPageUrl(url, new WebIconDatabase.IconListener() {
        public void onReceivedIcon(String url, Bitmap icon) {
            Log.i("HelloAndroid","Found Icon for " + url);
        }
    });
    wv.loadUrl("http://stackoverflow.com");
    Log.i("HelloAndroid","Loading " + url);

The problem may be down to the fact that I'm not adding the WebView to a visible View. If you do get this to work I'd be interested to hear what you did.

So sorry for giving two half complete answers, but I thought it was worth posting what I found.